The Twin Archers
by WonderWoman4608
Summary: When Apollo's twin son and daughter hold his fate in their hands, they get help from friends and mythical creatures to save him.  First FanFic! Please review! Sorry for errors.
1. Where it all began

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor will I ever.**

I don't know where I am. Well I do, its the day after school ended June 12th, I'm somewhere New York in my mom's Ford Edge on a "Road Trip" with my twin brother (sadly, identical... but I have more feminine features, thank god) Aaron, and my friend scene forever, Evan Gagnon and his mom. My mom and Evan's were in the store and I was the only one up. I looked at Evan, he was pretty tall for 11 maybe 5 10, he had light skin, a crooked smile, and brown hair that fell to green eyes, he was wearing a burgundy shirt and dark jeans and his school hockey sweatshirt and sneakers. I looked over at Aaron, he had wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes like the sky, and a bright white smile (those we shared) he had a white shirt on and jeans sneakers and a sweatshirt. Evan's mom got in the car and started it. My mom walked out of the store holding a bag.

"Stephanie could you wake your brother and Evan up?" Mom asked.

I looked at Aaron and smacked his leg and he sat strait up, eyes wide. "What happened?" He said. I looked at Evan and pushed him.

"Evan wake up..." I said.

"No."

"Theirs food."

"Well I guess..." He sat up.

His mom laughed "Of course you do," she looked at my mom. "you wonder why Im always out of food."

Mom laughed. "Well I hope this is enough for you Evan." She handed him a sandwich from the Subway inside.

"You hoped right Miss Archer."

Mom handed me the bag, I pulled out our drinks.

"Wheres my sammich woman?" Aaron asked.

"You are so weird." I handed him his sandwich. I pulled my sandwich out and handed the bag to mom. We pulled out of the parking lot and drove onto the highway. It seemed like we were going to Long Island but I wasn't sure. When we all finished our food we sat around for a while and listened to the radio.

"Kids its going to be a while so go back to sleep." Mom said. She looked nervous. So I did what she said. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes and started dreaming.


	2. The dream

I was standing on a mountain. There where marble buildings everywhere and statues of men and women and monsters, the mountain was absolutely beautiful. I heard music, like a harp, then it stopped.

"Hey there!" A voice said. I turned around a and yelped. "Holy Gods no need to yell." There was a guy standing there, about 16 or 17 with blond hair and outdoorsy looks. He looked like he had just gone surfing, he was wearing a white muscle shirt, khaki shorts and flip flops. He was holding a something small, I recognized it from History class. It was something that started with an l... um... a lyre!

"Who are you-"

"My name is Fred." He cut me off before I could finish.

"Um... I'm Stephanie."

"Cool name." A chair showed up suddenly and he sat down and strummed his lyre.

"Uh thanks." He stopped and looked at me. He had blue eyes like mine.

"Do you have a last name? Or a middle name?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." I said.

"Don't have one."

"What do you mean?"

He was quiet for a little. "I'm a dream person, I only have one name. Now whats yours?"

"Stephanie Cassandra Archer." I was nervous to tell him. But hes not real.

His face seemed to lighten up and he smiled. "Hey I knew someone named Cassandra!" Then his smile disappeared. "She hated me though. But it wasn't fair 'cause I loved her." He looked away.

"Oh... I'm so sorry." I said. He seemed to recover quickly.

"Its okay." He looked up. "Hey guess what?"

"Um what?"

"Its time for you to wake up!"

"Wait but why am I here?"

"Have fun sunshine!"

"WAIT!"


	3. The Horse Man in Curlers

I opened my eyes. It was dark outside. I grabbed Evans wrist and looked at his watch. 12:00 p.m.

"Ya sure you can borrow me." Evan said. I rolled my eyes. He got out of the car. My mom opened the trunk. She handed me a duffel bag full of clothes. She wouldn't look at me. She handed Aaron a duffel.

"You guys are going to stay here for the summer. Its a place for kids like you. Special kids." She said.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked.

"I cant tell you much, I don't know a lot about it but I promise you'll be fine here. You'll make friends, some will be like family."

"But what if we get throw out?"

"You've only been thrown out of two schools. And its called being expelled." She said.

"Are you sure that we belong here Mom?" I asked.

"Yes." She hugged me and Aaron. "You belong here. Go over that hill. Go to the Big House. Talk to Chiron the centaur. I love you." She kissed us on the forehead. She turned us to the hill and motioned for us to go up. Evan showed up next to us.

"This is so confusing." I said. We started up the hill. When we got to the to I gasped. There was a large field with what seemed to be Greek buildings. It was hard to see cause it was still dark but they were easy to make out. I saw a field with plants in it, a big forest, stables, a large house, the Long Island Sound. But what really caught my attention was a weird assortment of buildings. There was a golden one, and a silver one, a ugly blood red one, one that looked like a cabin, one that looked like a barbie house, and a hole bunch of other ones.

"This is on weird place." Aaron said. I nodded. We started down the hill and walked toward the house. I'm guessing that it was the Big House. I knocked on the door.

"I'm coming" A muffled voice said. That door opened. We all gasped. There was a white stallion with a man on it, but not on it, he was it, he had a scruffy beard and brown hair and a shirt that said my other car is a centaur. I tried not to laugh, but his tail was in curlers.

"Ah hello. I am Chiron." He held out his hand. We hesitated but Evan reached his hand out.

"I'm Evan Gagnon."

"Nice to meet you."

Aaron held his hand out. "I'm Aaron Archer."

"Hello Aaron."

Oh yay, my turn to shake hands with the freaky horse dude. I shook his hand. "I'm Stephanie Archer."

He looked at us all. "Come in." There was a big living room with a leather couch and a chair. There was a fire going in the fire place. I would have looked more but Chiron asked us to sit. I sat on the leather couch with Aaron and Evan.

"Why are you three here?" He asked.

"Our parents dropped us here and told us to see Chiron the centaur." Aaron said.

"Do you three have a mother or father?"

"I have a mom." Evan said.

"We have a mom." I said pointing to me and Aaron.

"Hm, so your godly parents can be anyone, such as Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus or Hermes."

"What are you talking about?" We said at the same time.

"You children are demigods, or half bloods, you have a mortal mother or father and a godly mother or father. Your life will be dangerous, you could be attacked by monsters outside of camp borders. You will not be aloud out of camp, unless you go along on a quest or aquire your own. Its a little late just around 12:00. Our orientation film will explain everything. Come along." He motioned for us to follow. He brought us into a dim room with about 5 chairs. We all sat a Chiron started the film.

"Hello and welcome to Camp Half-Blood!" And the lights turned out.


	4. the hermes cabin

We walked out of the room. I was in complete shock. I'm baffled. The video was about twenty minutes long. Chiron led us outside and towards the cabins. We came up to the brown one. It looked like a regular old log cabin with brown paint. There was a 11 at the top in gold. On the door there was a carving of a cadesus. Chiron knocked on the door. There was a bang and some groaning and then the door opened. My eyes widened. Right there in front of me stood Connor and Travis Stoll, my cousins.

"Holy Hermes, Steph, Aaron and random kid whose name I forgot!" Connor said.

"I think its Ivan" Travis said.

"No it started with an E."

"Ethan?"

"Naw..."

"Evan?"

"Ya! Ya I think so!"

"Whats up Evan!"

"Alright then... Connor, Travis wheres Luke?" Chiron asked.

"Hes sleeping." Connor said.

"You know, cause its like, 12:30" Travis added.

They looked at each other and laughed. "And your tail is in curlers!"

Chiron's face reddened. "Yes, well, give them somewhere to sleep and bring them to me tomorrow. Goodnight." Chiron galloped off.

"Ya Steph hes gonna need some help to get those curlers out of his tail!" Connor said. I kicked him in the back of the leg.

"Still love giving dead legs huh?" Travis said. "Come this way,shh don't fall." I almost tripped over a sleeping camper but Evan grabbed my elbow. I saw where Travis and Connor were taking us, there was a empty spot near a bunk.

"You might want to hold on to that thing on your waist Steph, you too Aaron. Hermes is the god of theives."Travis said.

"What thing...?" I looked at my waist, something was there but I couldn't make out what it was. "Oh... never mind." I still had no idea how it got there.

"Here, sorry, but we have no more beds,"Travis said.

"Our cabin is pretty full of unclaimed demigods and our brothers and sisters."Connor added. I sat down on the floor. Connor tossed us some blankets while Travis moved stuff around for us to sleep.

"Thanks guys." I said.

"No problem."Connor said.

"Night you guys."Travis said.

I leaned against Aaron and heard Connor and Travis snoring.I shut my eyes, and I was dreaming again.


	5. Fred tells me about me

"Your back!" A voice called.

"Fred?" I said.

"Ya! How ya doin'?"

"Um... I actually have some questions for you."

"Like what?"

"Like why do you keep showing up in my dreams?"

"Cause this isn't the first time we met."

"What do you mean?"

"I know everything about you."

"What?"

"Everything, your name is Stephanie Cassandra Archer and your 11 years old. You were born on June 15th. Your 5 feet 5 inches love sports, art, poems, you hate roses you don't think there romantic at all, you like sunflowers and lillys and bright flowers. You hate snakes and bugs and love the Red Soxs and the Bruins and The Patriots even thought you live in New York. You get good grades in all your classes and your dyslexic so you can never read your homework and your ADHD so you can never concentrate. You play many instruments and sing and dance. You love your brother and have a crush on your best friend. You have wavy blond hair that you barely ever leave down, its always up. You have blue eyes like the sky, and a bright smile. When you were four you were goofing around with your brother and you ran into an entertainment center and your right eyebrow has a scar on it. No eyebrow hair grows there so theirs a line on your eyebrow. We can sit here and do this for hours, sunshine." He looked at me and smiled a little. His eyes were darker, his hair was in his face. He looked sad. "I know about your brother too."

"Are you like, our guardian or something?"

He smiled. "No, but you'll find out soon, I promise." If he knew everything about me, he would expect this.

"Pinky promise me?" I held our my hand, pinky in the air. He smiled and linked his pinky with mine.

"Pinky promise."

I felt something tugging at me. "Whats happening?" I asked.

"Its time for you to go sunshine. I'll see you later!"


	6. Breakfast with a grounded god

I opened my eyes. I looked around, campers were cleaning up. Our duffels were under Travis's bed. I stood up and stretched.

"Here, put this on, theirs a bathroom right over there." Travis said. He handed me a orange shirt like everyone else had. I grabbed some jeans out of my duffel and walked towards the bathroom. It was open I walked in and closed the door. I changed into the orange shirt and clean jeans. I brushed my teeth and my hair and pulled it back in a pony tail. I looked at my shirt. It said CAMP HALF-BLOOD across it. It made me feel like I fit in. I walked out of the bathroom and threw my stuff in my duffel and pushed it back under Travis's bunk. A guy with blond hair walked over, I almost mistook him for Fred, but he was a little shorter and had a scar on his face. He looked at me and smiled, like one of those, 'hey I'm gonna smile to make you fall for me and rip you heart to pieces' smile. I glared.

"Oh-kay then. Hey, I'm Luke head counselor of the Hermes cabin." Mr. Smile said. He held his hand out to shake mine. I shook his hand.

"I'm Stephanie. This is my brother Aaron and my friend Evan." I let go of his hand and backed up.

"Nice to meet you guys, your gonna be swarmed with campers, everyone wants to meet you. Were going to breakfast now so just follow us." He walked to the front of the cabin. I looked at my waist, the thing was still there. It was an Ipod touch. I took it off the holder. I never had one of these, Aaron was looking at his too. There was a piece of paper taped to the holder. I grabbed it and opened it up.

_Hello Stephanie,_

_If you are reading this now,_

_you are at Camp. Please_

_find a child of cabin seven_

_they will help you with who_

_you are. We promise._

_Love, Mom and Dad._

I looked at Aaron. He held up the same paper, but addressed to him. Evan came over.

"Come on that Luke guy wants us to go to breakfast." He said. We walked out of the Hermes cabin and caught up with Connor and Travis.

"What happened to Luke? Like his scar."I asked.

"Well nobody really knows but," Connor said.

"He doesn't tell anyone but we all have guesses."Travis finished.

"Like this massive... thing came up and it was unbeatable and Luke fought it alone and he came out with that scar." Connor said.

"Or he ran into a tree during capture the flag..." Travis said.

"We have a bunch more thoughts but you know, we just don't know which one is right.

We walked into the mess hall and everyone stared at me Aaron and Evan. Connor put a hand on my back.

"This way." He whispered. He sat me down on a bench across from him and Travis. Aaron was on my right and Luke was on my left.A hoof banged on marble. I looked over and saw Chiron and a very plump man with curly purplish-black hair and a tiger striped shirt. I realized he was looking at the three of us. I looked away.

"That's Mr.D, camp director, hes really Dionysus, god of wine. Hes... grounded you could say." Luke whispered to us.

"Oh joy, a god on grounding."I whispered.

"Shh dont let him hear you."

Chiron spoke up. "Good morning campers. I just want you all to give a nice welcome to our three new campers. Aaron and Stephanie Archer and Evan Gagnon." Everyone looked in our direction and clapped I heard a few yell 'Hi' and 'Whats up'. There was a table that glared with a bunch of ugly kids sitting at it, I swear if looks could kill, we would all be incinerated.

"Yes yes new brats at camp. Hello Stacy and Allen and Ethan whats-his-face. Today Capture the Flag will be led by the Apollo cabin and the Ares cabin and blah blah blah..."

He went on, complaining about some activities. When he was done some nymphs came around with all of this breakfast food. I saw some kids saying the name of drinks and they appeared in the cup in front of them. I looked at my cup.

"Orange Juice." I said., Some O.J. appeared in my cup. I scooped some eggs in my plate and started breakfast.


	7. My camp tour

When we were done Travis and Connor brought us to Chiron, he was standing with three campers, one was a African American guy with big muscles, the other two guys looked to be related, they probably belonged to the same cabin, they were blond with blue eyes and were carrying a bow, and a quiver full of arrows.

"Chiron we brought the fugitives."Connor said.

"Mhm... fugitives. That's a good way to put it." Travis said.

"Connor, Travis be nice, now go were you have to." Chiron said. Connor and Travis ran off. "Kids, this is Lee Fletcher, Will Solace and Charles Beckendorf. And this is Stephanie Archer, Aaron Archer and Evan Gagnon." We all said hi and Chiron continued. "Each of you new campers are going to be shown around by one of these three campers. So, Lee take Steph, Will go with Aaron and Beckendorf go along with Evan. So go ahead." We all walked off.

"Just so you know I'm the head counsler of the Apollo cabin and I'm gonna give you a full tour of camp."Lee said.

"Cool."

"You sound nervous."

"Uh well you know."

"Ha ya... I do know. But don't worry, your undecided right?"

"Ya I just got here last night with my brother and my friend."

"Don't worry you parent will claim you soon, and everything will be a lot easier around here. I on this way." We walked out of the mess hall and walked around camp.

"This place is pretty big."

"Ya well there's loads of stuff to do. You wake up and go to breakfast and have your cabin inspection. There's an Ancient Greek class, lunch prep, store check, stable cleaning, strawberry picking, armor polishing, oh we gotta get you some armor too. Theirs archery, javelin throwing, sword practice, monster assault and Greek mythology classes. Theirs, weapon making, rapid riding, tracking skills, wrestling and volleyball. You have time write letters to home, clean up your cabin, laundry, wood-chopping and firework making. Then you have free time, you can go to the beach ,remember your sunscreen, discus and javelin and all that kind of stuff, you can go rock climbing and canoeing during that time. Then dinner, and tonight we play Capture the Flag then we have campfire sing-a-long with my cabin, the Apollo cabin."

"Wait, did you just say Capture the Flag?"

"Yeah, its very popular with our age group."

"Well I knew that, but i have just the slightest feeling that its not like regular middle school Capture the Flag."

"Not unless your middle school plays with deathly weapons, monsters and you can become severely injured?"

"Um no, just regular old capture the flag with regular kids and regular flags."

He laughed. "I wanna show you one more thing in here." I realized we had walked almost all the way around camp and the sun was getting lower in the sky. Lee brought me in to some horse stables.

"Wait. These... these hor-horses have wi-wings..."

"Ya, there Pegasi , or Pegasus if your talking about just one. But we just got two new ones, Hercules and Achilles." Lee showed me a pure white Pegasus with a twenty foot wingspan. He had what seemed to be black dots on his neck in the shape of the Hercules constellation. "Hercules took quite a liking to your brother, according to this note board about him. But Achilles here hasn't found anyone he likes a lot yet." I looked at the next stall. There was a pure white Pegasus, with wings as large as the other and they looked like a eagles wings. On the back its left ankle was black to its shin, were it faded to gray then to white. The horse looked at me.

"You can pet him you know, just reach your hand out and see what happens." Lee said. I slowly reached my hand out. Achilles locked eyes with me.

"The Pegasus it staring into my soul and its creeping me out." I whispered. Lee laughed. Then Achilles took his head and pressed it against my hand.

"I think he likes you, here give him this." Lee handed me a sugar cube. I held it out to Achilles. He sniffed it, then gently took it out of my hand. He flapped his wings his and flipped his mane.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Are you kidding me, that's amazing!" He smiled. "I hate to say this but, come on, I gotta show you the cabins and get you some armor." He led me out of the stables after writing something on Achilles's note board. We stopped in the armory and put in a order for my armor and headed for the cabins.

"Now this just might be the weirdest assortment of buildings you might ever see. Lets go to the goddesses side first, Barbie dream house is actually the Aphrodite cabin. This one with the owls carved on the door and looks kinda like a school is the Athena cabin. The silver one Artemis's cabin."

"Isn't Artemis a virgin though?"

"Ya, but we have it here for respect, and theirs the hunters of Artemis and they stay there when they come around. So moving on, this one with the flowers one it and the grass roof, that's the Demeter cabin. This marble one is empty too, the Hera cabin. Now the gods side, this marble ine is Zeus's cabin one camper lived here, but that s another story. This blue one, thats the Poseidon cabin, its empty too. This ugly blood red one it the Ares cabin, this greenhouse like one is the Dionysus cabin, this gold one is my beautiful cabin 7, the Apollo cabin and then of course the Hermes cabin. And here, are statures of the Gods and Goddesses." I gasped, right in front of me was a statue of Fred with the Python.

"Lee did you say you were head of cabin 7?"

"Ya how come?" I handed him the note and showed him the Ipod touch. "Well, turn it on!" His eyes were full of excitement. I turned the Ipod on. There wasn't anything special there were the apps like Google and blah blah blah. But there was already a game on it. "Play the game!" Lee said.

"Your crazily excited about this aren't you."

"Well duh!" I touched the game and there was a flash of yellow light and then I was holding a bow. It was white and had curled tops and had gold spiraling down it. It kinda looked like a white and gold candy cane. Lee and I just stared at it. "We gotta go to the archery range REAL quick. But first, we need to get you a quiver and some arrows."


	8. Living up to my name

When we got to the archery range free time was just beginning and the sun was setting. Chiron was the only one there.

"Chiron." Lee said.

He turned around. "Ah Steph, Lee, hows the tour?"

"Good, but we need to show you something."

"Wait, I see Steph has a quiver full of arrows. Has she picked her weapon?" Lee had brought me back to the armory and got me a white quiver tha hung at my hip that was full of arrows. There was a pocket to hold on to a sword, but I didnt have on yet.

"Well thats what this is about." I said. I pulled out the Ipod and opened up the archery app. There was a flash and Chiron's eyes got big.

"That's amazing, but is it truly of worth to you?"

"What do you mean? It came out of no were and appeared with me, Connor and Travis pointed it out last night. At least, I hope it really belongs to me."

"I would too." Chiron said.

"Well, what do I do?"

"Lee, show her how its done."

"Got it." Lee said. He walked to a red line. "Okay Steph come stand in front of me." I walked over. "Stand with your feet this far apart, keep your shoulders in line with your waist. Then when you aim do it like this, left arm straight with your pointer finger along the arrow and your thumb up like your giving your target well, a thumbs up. Your right arm pulls the arrow back like this middle and pointer fingers pulling the string against the arrow. Your elbow up like his. Line your jaw with the arrow like this, and lock eyes on your target and, let go." Lee kept his stance as the arrow flew, he hit the middle of the bull's eye with incredible accuracy. He looked at me "But if your target is farther like this," he backed up to a yellow line. "aim just a bit above the target like this." He set himself up again pulled the arrow "Aim about a inch higher then were you want to hit." The arrow sailed through the air and hit in the same spot.

"Wow."I said.

"Seem hard?" Lee asked.

"I could try."

I walked to the red line and stood with my feet apart. I took the arrow and set my hands up.

"Your doing pretty good." Lee said. I smiled. I brought my right arm up and pulled back with my left. I let go. The arrow sailed throw the air and hit the bottom of bull's eye.

"Perfect!" Chiron said. "You know what this means right?"

"That I'm living up to my last name?"

Chiron chuckled and put a hand on my shoulder. "No child, this could mean we are one step closer to having your father realize who you are."

"Fred said the same thing..." I whispered.

"Whose Fred?" Lee asked. "Are you having dreams?"

"It doesn't feel like a dream."

"Tell us child." Chiron said.

"Well, when my mom was driving us here, I didn't know were we were going, I fell asleep and I was standing on a mountain with all the statues on it. With men and women and all these creepy monsters, then there was this guy playing a lyre that just talked to me. It was weird it was like I was controlling the dream, and and we would sit there and talk. But he knew everything about me. My fears, what I love, what I hate and my secrets like, EVERYTHING about me. He said he knew about my brother too. I haven't told anyone."

"I think I know whats happening." Lee said.

"What?" I asked

"Before I was claimed, my dad started contacting me through my dreams under a false identity, saying his names was Kyle.I think your dad is doing the same for you and your brother."

"But if hes doing this why hasn't he claimed me and Aaron yet?"

"Its hard for gods to claim there kids sometimes cause there so busy, but you could be claimed at dinner."

"When is dinner?"

"After I teach you some more archery."


	9. Trusting me with sharp objects

We spent about another hour at the archery range were Lee taught me how to arch while kneeling, standing in a tree and a whole bunch more. Then we went to the forge to make some arrows, so if i ever needed more I knew what to weren't many kids in the forge, maybe six or seven and me and Lee made nine.

"Seriously Lee." I said.

"What?" He asked.

"Your gonna trust me with MORE sharp items?"

"Your gonna have to get used to 'em soon." Lee really made me feel better today. I felt fine here, like I fit in but I wasn't totally sure were I belonged at camp. I still don't, but Lee knew what I was dealing with and he was such a good friend to me. "Its simple! Just don't hurt your self."

"You make it sound so safe." I said. He smiled , grabbed a box off of the shelf and sat across from me.

"This is what you gotta do. Get your arrow head," He opened the box and handed me a arrow head. "which will have a celestial bronze tip."

"What?"

"Celestial bronze, very rare, it causes injury's to monsters and demigods but passes right through humans."

"Ohh-kay."

"So moving on, take the arrow base and take this string and tie it properly around so it stays." I wrapped the string around the base and around the arrow head tightly. "Okay good, know take this knife and cut it into the bottom and put the arrow feather in."

"Wait, its seriously called an arrow feather?"

"No, its just cooler to say and I forgot the real term."

"Great..." I took the knife and put a small slit in the bottom and put the 'arrow feather' in.

"Hey you did pretty good!"

"Seriously? Look at this in comparison." I put my arrow next to his. "Mine looks like crap."

He laughed. "This is the first one you made, its good for your first time!"

A conch horn blew.

"Come on, its dinner time."


	10. Capture the Flag

We walked down to the mess hall and Aaron and Will came up to us.

"Steph guess what!" Aaron said.

"You saw a evil octopus with a unicorn horn eat the Holiday Inn." I said.

"Which one?"

"The one in that place in Ohio."

"Wait Ohio?"

"Ya Ohio."

"But Ohio is huge."

"Your huge."

"Well your stupid."

"No your stupid!"

"Your stupider!"

"That's not even a word!"

"Ya so?"

"Your terrible at intellectual battles."

"What?"

"Exactly." He stuck his tongue out at me

Lee and Will were staring at us.

"Do you guys do that a lot?" Will asked.

"You know it just happens." I said.

"Its weird."

"Ya well twins are some of the weirdest people ever." Aaron said.

"As you can see we are quite mature." I said.

"Has anyone seen Evan?" Will asked. We looked around.

"There he is, sitting with Beckendorf at that table." Aaron said.

"That means he got claimed!" Lee said.

"By who?"

"Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge."

"Wow."

"Now just to get your dad to know you belong to him."

"You know who it is don't you, I'm just over thinking it." I said.

Will and Lee smiled. "Pretty much." They both said.

"Well that's good."

"No, this is good!" Lee said. Will pointed up to our heads. I looked up, above my head was a glowing yellow lyre.

"CLAIMED! STEPHANIE AND AARON GOT CLAIMED!" Will and Lee yelled. Everyone looked at Aaron and everyone started cheering. Will and Lee's brothers and sisters started introducing themselves. I missed everyone's name, they all blended together. Chiron came up behind us.

"Hail, Stephanie and Aaron Archer, the twin son and daughter of Apollo, god of archery and healing!"

I looked around the crowed and locked eyes with the person I wanted to find. Evan. He looked and smiled, his goofy crooked smile that was just there.

I got claimed to, my dad is Hephaestus. He mouthed. I smiled back at him.

Everyone went to there table, the Apollo kids welcomed us to the table like they knew we had been there half-siblings for there whole life. They didn't treat us any different than the kids at the Hermes cabin.

A hoof pounded on the marble. We all looked towards Chiron.

"Good evening campers, I would just like to say congratulations to our three new campers who have been claimed. Evan Gagnon, son of Hephaestus." Kids cheered. "And of course-"

"THE TWIN ARCHERS!" Connor and Travis yelled. We all started laughing, even Chiron and I thought I saw a smile tugging at Mr.D's mouth.

"And on that note, Mr.D, tell the campers about Capture the Flag."

Mr.D stood. "Well yes, good for Stacy and Allen and Ethan whats-his-face, huzzah huzzah. But tonight you brats play Capture the Flag. The Red Team, lead by the Ares cabin," There table cheered and three scary looking kids ran up, a girl and two boys ran up with a blood red flag with a boar on it. "with there teammates, the Hephaestus, Demeter, and Dionysus cabins, and the Blue team, led by the Apollo cabin" our table cheered, Lee, Will and a boy who I think is named Mike ran up with a yellow flag with a lyre on it. "with there teammates the Hermes, Athena and Aphrodite cabins. So eat your food and get your bratty butts in your armor and go into the woods."

The nymphs came around and passed out the best smelling food ever. I kinda just watched what everyone was doing. Will gestured for us to follow the tables. We all got up, and scraped some of our food into a blazing fire.

"Burnt offerings to the gods. We dump in some of our food and send a silent prayer to who ever on Olympus we wish."Will said.

"Burnt food? Doesn't is smell gross though?."

"In the wrong fire yeah, but this fire makes it smells amazing. The gods love the smell. Watch."

Will walked up to the fire and scraped some food in. He stood there for a few seconds and walked away. I copied what he did. I scraped in some food and sent a silent prayer.

Thank you so much for clamming me Father. I caught a whiff of air as I walked off, it smelled like pumpkin pie. Now I knew why the gods liked it so much. When I sat down back at the table I started eating my food. When we had finished the nymphs cleared off the tables and and Chiron pounded his hoof again.

"Okay campers now that dinner is over its time for Capture the Flag. So put your armor on, get your weapons and get going!"

"Wait were are we gonna get our-" I was going to ask where we were going to get our armor but it appeared on the tables. Even armor for me. A girl named Annabeth from the Athena cabin showed me how to put it on. I felt kind of stupid but she was really nice. She had a deep tan, curly golden hair and gray eyes.

"Congratulations on being claimed." She said.

"Thank you. And thanks for helping with the armor to." I said.

"No problem. So do you know the plan?"

"No."

"Okay well this is what were gonna do." She started whispering. "The Aphrodite cabin is going to be scattered throughout the field, Hermes cabin will be our defense, along with some of the Apollo kids up in trees, that will include you, Aaron, Will and Lee. The Athena cabin will charge in to battle with the other side and the rest of your cabin over here."

"What will me, Aaron Will an Lee do in the trees?" I whispered.

"Well, the trees in this forest are extremely close together, you could walk from tree branch to tree branch, it takes loads of balance though. But that's one of the traits Apollo kids have, there athletic, agile, have great aim, and are light on their feet. That's only physical, mental is different. You four will be crossing the enemy lines to get to there flag, which the Ares cabin always hides near trees."

"Wow, you know a lot about this."

"Ive been here the longest see," She showed me a necklace with a bunch of clay bead on it. ",we get one bead every year after the summer ends. If we survive."

"Well that makes me happy." She laughed. We walked deeper into the forest, I put on my helmet, with a blue plume on it. Will came over.

"Come on were going up here." He said. We ran over to a few trees. Annabeth was right, these trees were extremely close together. "When I say go, start climbing the tree and go that way." Will pointed to were the sun was, it was lower in the sky than the stables, I was guessing it would be setting soon.

"Got it."I said. A conch horn blew.

"GO!" I looked and saw Will clawing his way up the tree, digging the toe of his sneakers into the bark. His fingers finding gaps in the bark. Lee was doing the same. I looked at Aaron. He nodded. I looked up, and started climbing the tree. When I got to the lowest branch Lee and Will had waited.

"Try to make it over as quite as possible." Lee said. I nodded. Then I just realized he said it in Ancient Greek. And I understood perfectly. I was shocked. I looked up and climbed to the next few branches. I slowly shuffled my way across a branch. It creaked a little and I stopped. I took a deep breath and kept shuffling. I nervously hopped onto the next tree branch. I looked around. Aaron was nervously doing the same. He looked at me.

"We can do this."I mouthed

"On the count of three." He mouthed back. I looked forward and held out three fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Go.

I ran across the tree branch and jumped to the next. I almost peed myself, I couldn't believe I was doing this. Somehow, I was doing it without dieing. In under five minutes we reached the boarder where Will and Lee had stopped. We could see almost everything. Campers fighting with swords, failed attempts to get the flag. I could just barely see the Ares flag, if it was any other color I wouldn't see it, but blood red is easy to make out. There were four campers there.

"The Hephaestus cabin is guarding the flag, they wont be easy to get by. But I have a plan." Lee said. He and Will made there way to us.

"Lee, Aaron and I can take on Beckendorf, Jake and Brandon. Evan will be difficult, he has a lot of smarts. He sees Aaron, and like everyone, assumes that you will be with him. He will be even more on guard. If he sees you, which he probably will,do what you can to get the flag and run as fast as you can back to our side." Will whispered.

"If you need help, just yell. Don't forget about your sword, that will ,obviously, help you fight him off. When you get the flag, put it in your quiver and run." Lee said. I nodded. "Come on."

It took us a while to make our way to the flag, because we had to be even more quiet. The Ares cabin wasn't stupid. They had kids everywhere looking for us. We reached the flag, four boys still there looking north, south, east, and west. Will and Lee slowly made their ways down the trees. I looked at Aaron. He locked eyes with me, he smiled and winked then followed Lee and Will. They ran to the flag, instantly starting a fight with Beckendorf, Jake and Brandon. Evan pulled out his sword, ready for someone else to run out of the woods. I climbed down the tree, and went to the south side of the flag, Evan was at the north. I crept closer and closer to the flag. It was inches from my hand. The boys were fighting away. I stepped forward once more, and I would have it. I stepped forward. SNAP! I looked down, I stepped on a stick. Evan turned around, his green eyes bright. We locked eyes. Slowly ,still looking at him, I reached for the flag. He saw what was happening and grabbed my wrist.

"No way." He whispered. I pulled out my sword.

"Lets go buddy." I challenged him. He pulled me away from the flag and let go of my wrist. He swung his sword at me, but i deflected it. I swung down at his legs and he jumped over it. Wen went into a full on fight. To tell you the truth it was fun. Evan swung at my legs and knocked me down, I rolled towards the flag and knocked it over. I stood up as fast as I could and grabbed the flag and shoved it into my quiver. Evan just stared at me. I looked at him, smirked and ran away. I heard him start running after me, I heard a few more people running behind us, I figured it was the boys, I looked real quick, and it was. I weaved in and out through the trees, jumping over roots and rocks. I took an abrupt turn left, loosing myself in the woods. I looked behind me real quick to see were the boys were, I couldn't see them. I stopped and leaned against a massive oak tree.

"Hey!" A face popped out of the tree. "What are you doing against my tree? I didn't give you permission to lean on it now did I? Now get along with your stupid game and stop staring like that! And if I catch you trying to climb this tree I swear you'll regret it Half-Blood." The face disappear.

"Oh my gods..." I started pacing and pointing at the tree. 'there was a face. And the tree spoke. Why was a TREE talking?" I yelled.

"Well, maybe you should have paid attention to the whole orientation film." I turned around. There was a elfish girl standing there holding flowers. "I'm Juniper. Oh, your friends are coming, I suggest you get on with your game." She ran off into the woods. I stood there for a second, then I heard something that didn't sound like a person, so I started running back to our side. I ran back they way I came and heard the fighting campers. That was a big mistake.

"GET HER!" Someone yelled and the other team charged for me. I ran as fast as I could back to our boundary line, when I saw Will, Lee, and Aaron.

"SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!" Aaron yelled. I started weaving while I ran, I thought it wouldn't work, but it did. I lost a large amount of the group while I was running. Most of them got back into fights with the campers they were fighting with before, but there were still a lot of kids chasing me. The boundary line was so close, crossing it would end the game. I jumped over a fallen tree, out boundary line. I landed on our side. Quickly I pulled it out of my quiver and thrust it in the air. There was cheering and clapping, I heard depressed sighs from the Red Team. Connor and Travis pulled me up on their shoulders. Chiron came over and took the flag from me, once he did the ugly blood red flag changed, now shimmering with golden paint and a lyre on it.

"The Blue Team has won the game!" Chiron called. Our team erupted in another round of cheers. Connor and Travis smiled up at me. "Now, you all have time to shower and change into clean clothes and treat wounds before tonight bonfire. Now hurry!" Connor and Travis put me back on the ground.

"Great job Steph!" Travis said.

"Good job hiding the flag to." Connor said.

"Thanks guys." I said. They ran off to join the rest of their cabin. I followed after mine, were everyone began congratulating me. We emerged from the forest, were I could see kids running to there cabins then out to the showers or to the infirmary.

"Hey Steph, you should get that checked out, it looks bad." Aaron said, pointing to my arm. I looked down, there was a long cut right along my forearm with blood trickling down it.

"How did I miss that?"

"How did you miss the thing about the tree nymphs?"

"Shut it." I said.

He smiled "The infirmary is this way."


	11. Fire and the Apollo Cabin

**A/N: I just want you all to know I'm using WordPad to write this story and its stupid and doesnt have spell check... so if I missed something then sorry!**

Aaron had brought me down to the infirmary were Chiron cleaned out my cut and wrapped a bandage around my arm, which was throbbing with pain. As we were walking to the Amphitheater a very unattractive girl came up to Aaron and I.

"I see you got your cut bandaged." She said. "I'm Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares and creator of you bloody arm."

"Good for you." I said, giving her a dirty look.

"Look, you little sunflower, I don't know how you weaseled your way out of fighting anyone of us on your way TO our side. But I plan to figure it out."

"Sunflower? Is that the best you got Meathead?"

"Watch yourself Sunflower!" She said. She stared at me like she was going to shoot laser beams out of her eyes before leaving.

"At least she didn't call you a pansy." Aaron said.

"Not helping." I said. Aaron shrugged. When we walked into the Amphitheater all I saw was a massive fire pit surrounded by sections of bleachers that had different color banners at the top of them with something written in Greek on them. I looked at the flags and read some of them. A rose colored one that read Aphrodite, a green one that read Demeter, a gray one that read Athena, and so on. Aaron and I walked to the one that was a golden yellow and read Apollo on it. We sat down in the front row and waited for everyone else to come. Once everyone showed up Chiron came over and tossed a torch into the pit, and it blazed to life. I saw some of my half siblings with guitars and they began to play. They started singing a song about their grandmother going downtown to get some armor. I didn't understand it really, but the fire seemed to be reacting. The louder we all sang, the taller the fire would get. Tonight, the fire was at least a good 15 feet tall and glowing bright yellow. Evan came over and sat down next to me, elbowing me in the process. After a while campers were beginning to leave the Amphitheater, heading to there cabins. We stayed around till the fire shrunk to 4 feet tall, but still glowed yellow. Lee came over and sat down next to us.

"You know, the color that the fire glows depends on all of our moods." Lee said.

"Why?" Aaron asked.

"I dunno, why does it grow higher when we sing louder?"

"You really think I know."

"Nope."

"Good cause I don't"

"Children, you should be heading back to your cabins for bed." Chiron said, pulling a marshmallow out of a bag and popping it into his mouth. "You know, these are terrible for me to eat." He said, putting another marshmallow in his mouth and walking away. "But there so good." He mumbled.

"Come on." Lee said. We stood up and walked out of the Amphitheater, our little group separated to go to our cabins, Evan going to the Hephaestus cabin and Lee, Aaron and I heading to the Apollo cabin, glowing a faint gold in the moonlight. Lee opened up the door and let us in.

"Welcome to the Apollo cabin." He said.

One wall was a bookshelf that was full with CD's, bunk beds lined the other two walls, and on the back wall had posters from bands and movies. In the middle of the room there was a tree, yes a tree. A laurel tree to be specific. There was a small circle of soil surrounding it with bricks at the edge of it. The rest of the floor was hardwood, the two visible walls were painted a sky blue.

"Thats were you two will sleep, you pick top or bottom, if you can't we can flip a coin or something." Lee said, pointing to a bunk bed that had the beds set up like an L. The top bunk went along one of the painted walls, while the bottom one stuck out, tucked under the top one a little.

"I call top." Aaron and I said at the same time.

"Oh-Kay, looks like were flipping a coin." Lee said. "Anyone got a drachma?" He asked. Something golden flipped through the air to him. "Thanks. OK, heads or tails?"

"Heads." I said

"Tails." Aaron added. Lee flipped the coin in the air, I crossed my fingers. Lee caught the coin and flipped it down on his hand.

"Heads." Lee said. "Steph gets top bunk." Lee tossed the drachma back in the direction were he got it. Aaron and I walked to the bunk.

"How do you always win." He said.

"Not sure, maybe you should pick before I do."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You always pick after me."

"Touché." He said. When we got to our bunk our duffel bags were already there. The stairs to get to the top bunk doubled as storage, plus we both had trunks to put some extra stuff in. I tossed my clothes in the top two steps while Aaron to the bottom ones. I made a note to write a letter to mom and ask for some of my stuff. We sat around, a speaker playing music overhead. After awhile we were all in our pajamas, and lights out was at 11:00. I climbed under the covers took one last look at the Apollo cabin, and shut my eyes.


	12. Apollo's House

"Stephanie is that you?" Fred called.

"Yeah that's me."

"Great." Fred grabbed my hand. "Come on. I wanna show you something. Up there." He pointed to a hill, pulling me along with him.

"Were are we going?" I asked.

"Up that hill." He said. I rolled my eyes. "So, what happened at camp today."

"I thought you knew all."

"I do know all, but I'm gonna be awesome and let you tell me while I pretend not to know."

"Oh-Kay, but anyways our team won Capture the Flag, and girl named Clarisse cut open my arm."

"Yeah, I saw that, it wasn't very nice."

"Your really bad at pretending not to know things."

"Eh, I have my moments. Continue."

"My dad claimed Aaron and I today."

"I knew that."

"You suck at pretending."

"No, I know cause I'm your dad."

"That's impossible. Your what 16? You would have been 5 when my mom gave birth, That's just nasty.

"No, you have to believe me. I'm Apollo. I'm your dad."

"That can't be possible."

"No, you remember the video? How they said Gods can be in more than one place at once."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm in like, 3 places right now. In your dream. In Aaron's dream. Some place in Cabo San Lucas."

"Why are you in Cabo?"

"Its nice there. But that's not the point. Come in here, I'll prove it."

He pulled me to a house that was nestled into the side of the hill. Inside there were marble floors, white walls the had paintings sketched on them my by the owner of thee house. There was a small kitchen, a living area and a hall that probably led to a bathroom and a bedroom. There were stairs that Fred was leading me to. When we reached the top it was a pretty large loft. It looked like a painters loft, there were easels with blank canvases on them, some were painted on, but the walls were what caught my attention. They were long, tall and plastered with pictures.

"Go look at them, but start there." Fred pointed to the right side of the wall. I walked over to it. There were small portraits of kids, each kid had a few showing them progressing in age. Each ad something written on the bottom. I looked at one. There was a young boy sitting at a piano. I looked down at the writing on the bottom, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

"Wait, Mozart?" I questioned.

"Oh yes, a great son, I still miss him. Up there I have some of my other sons, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael."

"The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Or the artists?"

"The artists. Keep moving."

I walked farther along the wall. They changed from portraits to black and white photos. Those changed to color photos. I was nearing the edge of the photos.

"Is that Lee?" I asked pointing to a photo of a small boy holding a paint brush in his hand who couldn't have been more than seven or eight.

"Yup. Will is right there." Fred pointed to a photo of a boy about ten who was dressed up like a doctor. "That's during Halloween."

Fred was standing next to me now, hands in his pockets, studying the wall of photos. He simply pointed to the edge and put his hand back in his pocket. I looked at the end. There were four photos. One was of two babies sleeping silently. The next was of a little boy and little girl holding hands standing in front of a Christmas tree. The little boy was in jeans and a red polo, the little girl in a red dress, white tights, black shoes and a headband with a little green bow on it. The third was of the same boy and girl, standing in front of a school with backpacks, both carrying a instrument case. The last photo shocked me the most. The photo was taken this morning by Chiron. It was a photo of Aaron and I. We were walking around camp with Lee and Will. Aaron bet me a piggyback ride that I couldn't beat him in a race on the beach. When we were running I changed course and jumped on Aaron's back. Chiron was walking by and asked to take a picture to send to our mom to tell her we had gotten over safely. My head was on Aaron's shoulder, we smiled the same way, our hair fell the same way, our eyes sparkled the same way.

"Just cause everything is the same between you two doesn't mean you aren't different." Fred said quietly. "You were thinking out loud." I stared at Fred.

"Your my dad." I whispered. Fred nodded.

"Your mother was a wonderful woman. An amazing nurse too. I fell in love with her fast, but she was different. I had to keep bugging her to go out with me on a date. When she finally said yes, I decided to stay around and see where things went. After a few months she was pregnant with you and Aaron. I stayed with her the entire time, neither of us expected twins. When you were born, Zues saw what had happened. He wasn't happy. He knew the power you two would have and it worried him to see what would happen. I assured him that he shouldn't be worried. Hera was the least happy with your birth. She doesn't like my children. She hates me. Artemis was somewhat happy. The rest of the gods? Eh, they focus on their kids. But Zeus always kept a eye on you two. I asked him why, he said he was making sure you were making smart choices. You two impressed him, he still worrys though. But he believes in you and Aaron."

"Mom misses you, why did you have to leave." I asked quietly.

"I couldn't stay. We aren't supposed to favor anyone. I love all my children equally though. Zeus said it would be worse for you two if I stayed, saying that monsters would attack at an early age if they sensed me. The pictures I have of you are from your mom. She writes me a lot. She'll send me pictures. I'm sorry I wasn't around more." He looked over at me. He smiled at me a little and hugged me, resting his head on top of mine. "I'm sorry."


	13. Letters and the angers of Dislexia

It was a little after breakfast on Saturday and Aaron and I were sitting around the cabin. We were lying on Aaron's bed he was listing to music while I was attempting at a letter for Mom, trying not screw up the words. I got upsut and put the letter on the trunk in front of his bed. I sat up and moved to the head of the bed with Aaron.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm listing to a song called Am I Wrong? Tyler from the Athena cabin told me it was good." He replied.

"Whos it by?"

"A band called Love Spit Love." He said. He paused the song and stared at the tree. "Your good at stories right? A lot less dyslexic than me."

"Yeah, I'm not that bad."

"Could you tell me the story about Apollo and Daphne? Like Mom would?" He asked. I smiled.

"No problem. Okay, there's this beautiful Naiad named Daphne. She pledged that she would be a virgin. And of course there was Apollo, one day he was being cocky and said that Eros, the god of love, did not have arrows as powerful as his own. He even said that Eros should just had over his bow and arrow and give up on the entire thing. Well, Eros wasn't having any of it, so he decided to show Apollo that he wasn't taking his crap and he was just as powerful. So, Eros shot Apollo with golden-tipped arrow making him fall in love with Daphne. But Eros wasn't done, he shot Daphne with a lead-tipped arrow making her hate Apollo. This was Apollo's first love, he was crazy for her. He would chase her through the woods, which Daphne hated. She ran to the bank of a river and cried to her father Peneus to save her from Apollo. Peneus turned her into a laurel tree. Apollo was crushed, he decided that the laurel tree would be sacred to him and would often wear a laurel wreath on his head." I was staring at the tree the whole time.

"I still can't believe that you know that story by heart."

"I can't believe you don't, mom told us stories about Apollo all the time." I said.

"I talked to him." Aaron said.

"Who?"

"Apollo. He was in my dream. He was talking to me. It happened in the car ride down here. He said his name was Fred."

"Same with me. He showed me this house with all these pictures. The one from yesterday."

"He showed me the same thing. He said that Zues was scared about our power and that he was afraid of Apollo's old foes attacking us." He put air quotes around the word power. We talked about the dreams for a while.

"Do you think, that he avoided us. I mean for our lives, up to this point?" I asked.

"No, he couldn't have. I mean, were his kids. Mom says all the time, 'I don't understand why I can never avoid your sister after she loses a softball game. I mean really, shes always there' and then she would laugh and you would walk into the kitchen in your uniform. Then Evan would walk in our apartment and look at you while you yanked off your dirty slide pad and throw it down the stairs and he'd make a face and back out the door and shut it quietly." He smiled.

"Like you didn't do the same with football..."

"Yeah, well... BLAH!"

"Genius. Did you write a letter to Mom yet?"

"Not without trying to rip my eyes out."

"Well that's joyful."

"Its hard. I'm gonna go for a walk. You wanna come?" Aaron asked.

"Nah. I'm gonna try to finish my letter."

"Have fun with that." Aaron rolled off of the bed and walked out the door. I sat up and grabbed the paper. It took me a half hour to finish it.

_Dear Mom,_

_How are you? I got claimed by Dad. I'm sure you knew_

_who he was, because he told me he told you, but anyway_

_It's Apollo. Camp is great, there's so much to do. Theirs_

_this Pegasus named Achilles who really likes me. I hope_

_you know how hard it is to write this letter, sorry I can't_

_write more, but I want to break something. Its making_

_me angry. I was wondering of you could send me some_

_stuff from my room. You know what I mean. Don't forget_

_peanut butter. Jiffy. Okay, well I gotta go. I love you._

_Stephanie_

I was getting more angry. I folded the letter and put it in an envelope. I walked out of the cabin with it and walked over to the Big House. Everyone was giving there letters to Chiron so he could mail them out and write the return address on it. I walked up the steps of the porch on the Big House.

"Ah, hello Stephanie. Got a letter for home? Asking Mom for a care package filled with goodies from home?" Chiron asked.

I smiled. "Yeah, how'd you know?" I handed Chiron the letter.

"Its always the first letter. Hello Mr.D." Chiron took the letter as Mr.D walked out of the Big House.

"Hello Chiron, Stacy."

"Good Morning Mr.D." I said. He nodded and sat down at the table.

"Well Steph, I'll get your letter out as soon as I can." Chiron said.

"Thank you Chiron, have a good day Mr.D." I walked down the steps and headed to the stables. Campers smiled at me like they knew something I didn't, till I saw Connor and Travis and they smiled that way, its just common and I was nervous to stand round. Who knows what they were doing. When I got to the stables there was only one camper in there, Tyler from the Athena cabin.

"Hey Tyler." I said. Tyler turned around, he was a child of Athena even though he has black hair and hazel eyes. He has glasses, rings and reads a lot.

"Hey Steph. Whats up?"

"Nothing really, just dropped a letter to home to Chiron. Checking on Achilles."

"Yeah hes right there, goin' for a ride?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"You have ridden a horse before right?"

"Yeah, but not with wings." I said.

"Well yeah, Its pretty much the same, there are basic commands. Fly to fly, left for left, right for right. You know, except you wouldent tell a normal horse to fly. Just follow the trails and you'll be all set." He said.

"Thanks Tyler." I said.

"No problem." He smiled and walked out of the stables.

I walked over to Achilles's stable, he flapped his wings when he saw me. I put a hand on his nose.

"Hey Achilles. You wanna go for a walk?"

I opened his stable door, and he walked out, his wings folded in. I looked at the note board. I picked up the marker and wrote 'Went for a ride with Steph at 12:30' and walked out with Achilles trailing. Once we got out he stretched his wings, definitely 20 foot wingspan. I climbed on his back and he started down a trail. He took me down this trail were we walked along along a river. There was a little opening and Achilles spread his wings and flew into the air. I locked my arms around Achilles's neck, holding on for dear life. After a few minutes I decided to look up. The woods stretched below us, the Long Island Sound seemed to stretch forever. I wondered how nobody could notice this all, but there was the Mist, it was like a veil over mortal eyes so they couldn't see what Ancient Greek creepers and awesome creatures that were still walking the Earth. He landed back down in the same spot, on our way back down the trail I saw Tyler riding down so we stopped.

"Chiron wants you and your brother to meet him down at the Big House as soon as you can. I just told Aaron so hurry." He said.

"Okay, thanks Tyler." I said. He nodded. "Achilles, come on to the stables." Achilles huffed and galloped to the stables. When we got there he walked himself into his stable. I shut the door behind him and smiled. "Good boy."

I turned and ran down to the Big House.


	14. Crowds, Pressure and Aunts

**A/N: I wrote this while wearing a Santa hat. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! ~Meg**

When I got down to the Big House all I saw was a swarm of orange. All my siblings were there yelling. I pushed my way through the crowd to the front and saw Aaron on the porch with Chiron. Aaron motioned for me to go stand with him. I ran up the stairs and stood next to him.

"Children," Chiron called. No one stopped yelling. I saw kids from other cabins joining the crowd. "Hey! Be quiet!" Chiron yelled. He stomped his hoof. Everyone stopped talking. "As you all know, I just received an Iris Message from Apollo. The serpent Python has returned. She has captured Apollo and is holding him hostage until a worthy opponent fights her. Apollo asked for two of his children and a friend to fight her. He has asked for the twins. Aaron, Stephanie, do you accept this quest to save your father?" Chiron said.

Aaron and I looked at each other. This came to us so fast. I looked back at Chiron, then over the crowd. Everyone was watching us, they were all silent. All of camp had gathered, Apollo's cabin infront watching us intently and the Ares cabin floating off the back of the crowd. I looked back to Aaron, who gave me a look as if to say, accept the quest. I nodded. Chiron opened the door to the Bog House and led us inside, not coming in right after us.

"Are you sure?" I whispered to Aaron.

"We have to save him." He whispered back.

"Yeah I know, but Chiron is probably gonna tell us we leave tommorow, on our birthday. Then we'll have to find him, wherever he is."

"I know, but Chiron probably has more information than what he led onto outside so he doesnt freak everyone else out."

The door opened and closed, Chiron stepping in.

"Your father is in worse danger than I let on. Python is going after Artemis too. She belives its an act of Hera again." Chiron said.

"Why the freak would Hera do that?" I asked.

"Well, Hera has never enjoyed Artemis and Apollo. Or any other childern of Zeus's that werent hers. Python has been recollectiong in the depths of Tartarus for quite some time now, and has gained much power. Hera recently got into a fight with Artemis about her virginity. Hera, being the goddess of marriage, wishes for Artemis to wed. Artemis forbids it, wants nothing of it. They began yelling about how Artemis will never have a bigger family. Artemis says 'all I need is my hunters! And Apollo inst that bad ether.' The fight proceeded, Artemis winning. Hera was enraged, so she awoke Python and sent her out to kill them. Python went after Apollo first, because of what he did after his mother, Leto, could not give birth in peace. And seen how Apollo is not able to drive his chariot across the sky for sunset, this might be the longest day of the year. Unless Artemis finds it and flys it across the sky." Chrion said.

"What if Artemis is attacked before she finds the chariot?" Aaron asked.

"Well," Chiron was pacing and wringing his hands. "we could disturb the balance of nature and never see the night again."

"Well... that's just. Wow." I mumbled.

"Chiron?" A voice said. I turned around. A girl about my age was standing on the calling end of and Iris Message. She looked to be my age, with auburn hair and silver eyes. "I have found the chariot. Later on today, I shall fly it across the sky. What time shall I lift off?"

"Artemis? Oh thank Gods your okay. Lift off around six forty-five, the recorded time of sunset today. Artemis, this is-" Chiron was cut off.

"Stephanie Cassandra and Aaron James." She smiley lightly. "I haven't seen you two in quiet along time."

"Uh. What?" Aaron said.

"Aunt Artemis. Last I saw of you two was the day you were born. I suspect you will be meeting me tomorrow with your third companion?" She asked.

"Um. It, and you. Message?" Aaron said pointing at the Iris Message.

"What?" Aaron and I said at the same time. He elbowed me in the ribs.

"Stop copying me." He said.

"I think it was you copying me." I said hitting him. He hit me back.

"It was totally you!" I hit him again.

"Ít was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!" I yelled.

"Was not! He yelled.

"I was neither of you! It was me! Problem solved!" Chiron said. Artemis was smiling.

"Its like Apollo and I when we were younger." She said. "But tomorrow I will arrive after breakfast to get you. I suspect you will be ready?"

"I'll get them set Artemis. Remember take off at six forty-five." Chiron said. Artemis nodded and waved a hand through message. Chiron looked at Aaron. "You must receive your prophecy now. Up in the attic, talk to the Oracle of Delphi." Aaron nodded, looked at me the walked over to the attick and climbed up.

"Why Aaron?" I asked.

"The leader of the quest goes, seens how both of you are leading, its the eldest." Chiron said.

"Its only 15 minutes.." I mumbled.

"Yes I know. You two are so much like Artemis and Apollo when they were younger. So help me Gods I might go crazy..."

"Really?" I asked.

"Oh yes, Neither of you are exactly like one, but a mix. You have a little more of Artemis's matureness than Aaron. That is one of the larger reasons I sent him up there. I belive that if he sees that other people belive that he can be mature, he'll show his it more. I do belive that both of you are undiscribably like your father though..." There was a thump from upstairs.

"Should we go check what happened?" I asked.

"No. Let him do this. Hes got it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Do you know who your going to ask to accompany you on the quest?" He asked.

"We didn't talk about it, but I was thinking Evan." I said.

"Hes a good kid. I would have been surprised had you said somebody else. Now about sending you out on your birthday."

"I understand it. Not wanting to take the chance of anything more."

"I wouldn't want you two to worry about your dad on your birthday, and I'm sure you would want your father there."

"Hes missed every single one. Wouldent make a difference now..." I mumbled. I looked up. "Sorry. That was selfish."

"Don't worry. Everyone has the right." There was another thud.

"Whats happening up there?" I asked.

"Well, you can change after you talk to her. You can come out fine. Or you can come out mad trying to figure out what the lines of the prophecy means."

"Aaron can go crazy?"

"Yes, but I haven't seen it in quiet a long time. Don't worry."

"Well that's gonna be hard now." There was a crash. I looked at Chiron.

"I'm not kidding now."

"Neither am I. Lets go."

I ran to the stairs and stopped. Aaron stood there with a blank expression staring at nothing.

"Aaron?" I said.

He just stood there. Not saying anything.


	15. What the Oracle said

**A/N: So, I did something different. In this chapter were going to see things going on in Aaron's pretty little head! Yay!**

**AARON'S POV.**

What the Hades did the Oracle mean? I was sitting on the couch. Steph was saying something to Chiron, then he left. Steph sat down next to me. I couldn't hear what she was saying. I thought about what the hippie had said. And when I say hippie, I don't mean "Save the Earth" I'm talkin' Flower Child. With green breath. Nasty. When she talked, she said this:

Three shall travel to the East

To face the mighty Serpent beast

Find the speaking tree

And free he spirit set her free

Save more than one soul that was lost

I under stood none of it. Artemis was supposed to come with us so why did she say three? I understand traveling East, and facing the Serpent beast. And the talking tree spirit? Like a dryad or something? And why are we saving more than one soul? Something hard struck my face.

"OW! What was that!" I yelled. Steph was standing over me, Evan next to her.

"Hes up." Evan said.

Steph rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." She walked away. Evan's eyes followed her.

"Your welcome, Lieutenant Sarcastic." He said back.

"What hit me?" I asked.

"Steph smacked you across the face cause you were mumbling crap about a Flower Child." Evan said, floping down on the couch next to me. He took a bite out of a sandwich. "I told her it would hurt you but make you shut up." He mumbled.

I rubbed the side of my face. "Thanks for the help man..."

"No problem!" Evan said.

I looked over at Steph, who was staring at the small fire in the fireplace. I looked out the window, the sun was setting.

"Hey, Evan, were did you get that sandwich?"

"From the-"

"Artemis has been captured!" Chiron yelled, bursting through the door of the living room.

"But the sun..." Evan mumbled

"Zeus. He had to." Chiron said. "Aaron?"

"Steph hit me." I said. Chiron looked at her. She smiled.

"Well then. What did the Oracle say?" He asked.

"Aaron called her a Flower Child." Evan said through another mouthful of sandwich.

"ANYWHO. The Oracle said Three shall travel to the East, To face the mighty Serpent beast, Find the speaking tree, And free her spirit set her free, Save more than one soul that was lost." I repeated.

"Sounds like were going a little off quest..." Steph mumbled. "Have you figured any of it out?"

"Some of it... just the simple lines. Easy, we go east and face Python. Were gonna find a tree that talks and save her. Than we save Dad and Artemis." I said.

"But who is this talking tree lady?" Evan asked.

"A dryad?" Steph offered.

We all began throwing in ideas for lines of the prophecy not even noticing Mr.D standing there.

"I have a guess." He said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I said I had one," He pulled a Coke out of the fridge. "I never said I would tell you." He opened his Coke and walked out.

"Well. Isn't he just a little ray of sunshine." Steph mumbled.

"I HEARD THAT!" Mr.D called. She blushed.

"The is no way of knowing who the tree spirit is. Or why you are saving her. Or what shes mentioned for." Chiron said

"What if its Daphne." Steph said. "Mom told us the story of her all the time. It would make sense. We have to free her spirit from the tree so she can finally be free. Then to repay us, she helps us! It makes sense!"

"But if we let her go, wont she die?" I asked.

"I would rather spend and eternity in Hades then suck in a tree..." Steph said.

"But were is she?" Evan asked.

"She could be anywhere. Our best bet would probably be-" Chiron started

"Hey Chiron! Its late!" A voice called

"I'm hungry." A second said.

"Shut up Connor."

"Make me Travis!"

"Boys?" Chiron said. Connor and Travis came into the room.

"Hello." Connor said with a wide smile on his face.

"How are you?" Travis said, mimicking the smile.

"I'm fine right now. But i have a feeling I wont be soon." Chiron said.

"Well were hungry." Travis said.

"And we still have to play Capture the Flag." Connor added.

Chiron looked at the clock on the wall. "Its only 6:00."

Connor and Travis motioned for him to keep going.

"Oh. Oops. Sorry boys, this quest is big. Come on kids."

We headed out of the Big House and started to the Dining Pavilion. Chiron blew the conch behind us.

Just 19 hours till we leave and face certian death.

No worries.

**AHHHHHH! WHAT HAPPENES NEXT! REVIEW AND TELL ME! Review and Carl from Llamas with Hats won't eat you hands.**


	16. Batman, Thin Mints and The Beatles

**A/N: Ok so before any of you try to slaughter me for my Beatles fangirly-ness and my mention of them in here, along with my Batman thingy, this chapter's length was enraging me so I made it longer... If you don't like it PLEASE suck it up for right now and keep reading. Kayyy thanks. P.S. THIN MINTS ARE AWESOME!**

**AARON'S P.O.V**

After dinner Chiron sent us back to our cabin, not letting us play Capture the Flag for fear of injury. When I walked into the Apollo cabin Steph was examining part of her bunk.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Check out what I found!" Steph said.

I walked over and stood on my bed looking at what she was pointing to at the head of her bed. _George Harrison was here! July 9th 19 1953_.

"George Harrison?" I asked.

"Yeah. Handful of drachmas that we find the rest of The Beatles."

"Your on."

We started running around the cabin, looking at every piece of wood on the bunks that surrounded the mattresses.

"I found Ringo! June 7th 1950!" Steph called.

"I can't believe were doing this." I yelled examining the surround on another bunk.

"Distracting us from everyone else playing Capture the Flag isn't it?" She yelled. She was standing on the far end of the cabin standing next to a big KISS poster.

"Ha! Steph I found Paul! July 20th 1952!" I yelled.

"Another handful I find John before you!" She said.

"You don't even have one handful of drachmas." I said.

"No but neither do you!"

"HA! John! August 2nd 1950!" I called.

"Where were Paul and John?" She asked.

"John was on Will's bunk and Paul was over by Quinn's bunk." I said.

"I found Ringo on yours." She said.

"I feel like such a geek." I said.

"You look like one too." She said.

"Thanks baby sister."

"Baby sister? Its 15 minutes!"

"15 minutes too long." I smiled.

"Theirs something severely wrong with you."

"Somethin' wrong with me, somethin' wrong with you." I pulled on my camp sweatshirt. "I'm going for a walk. You wanna come?"

"Nah. I'm gonna check out some more on Python..." She motioned to a bookshelf with a bunch of dirty old books next to a drum kit and some guitars.

"Have fun reading."

"There in Greek. Theirs no chance of death. Its good."

"Like I said. Have fun. I'm going on a walk."

I walked out of the cabin and started to the beach. The beach was quiet, there was only three of us not playing. Evan had gone to his cabin to work on something he was making. I pulled out my iPod and made it my bow. It was a bit longer than Steph's, but it was more of a Roman bow, while hers was more Greek. The tips were gold and the rest was white. I pulled an arrow from the quiver that hung on my back. I aimed for sand, not going for a tree so a dryad didn't try to kill me. Will had taught me what to do, so I set up and let the arrow fly. It landed twenty feet away. I started to the arrow when a man picked it up.

"You know kid, you could have killed me." The man said. He was dressed in a jogging suit and a messenger bag hung at his side.

"Who are you?" I asked, slowly talking the arrow from his hand.

"Well, I'm your Uncle Hermes."

"Wait. What?"

"Your. Uncle. Hermes." He said slowly.

"_Does the boy have any rats?_" A voice from the bag said.

"George! We have deliveries to make! Be quiet!" Hermes yelled into the bag.

"_I just want some rats. Rats are delectable_." George said.

"Martha, make George be quiet."

"What was that?"

"George and Martha. I got a box for you." He reached into the bag and pulled out a box that shouldn't have fit in there. "From your mom. Sign here." He held out a clipboard and a pen. I wrote my name on the line. "She sent this letter to. I guess she used Google Translate so you could read it. Thoughtful woman."

"Uh... thanks." I took the letter and put it in the pouch in my sweatshirt and took the box.

"Need help getting that back to your cabin, Aaron?" He asked.

"Uh no. I'm good thanks."

"Tell Steph I said hi." He said.

"Wait!" I called. He turned.

"Whats up, kid?"

"Do you think that you could, maybe, visit your cabin? I mean, Connor and Travis..."

He smiled a bit. "I guess I could visit my cabin. Had no taste for giving this letter to Aphrotite anyways... Here, let me help you with that box."

We started walking to the cabins when we heard cheering from the woods. The Hermes cabin came running from the woods with their flag hoisted high. When they saw Hermes they all stopped.

"Ill take the box from here." I took the box from his hands and walked across to my cabin. I was at the steps when I looked back and Hermes was being led into the cabin. I kicked at the door and Steph opened it. "Hello."

"Box?" She questioned letting me in.

"Hermes. Hes hanging with his kids." I told her. I put the box down on my bunk an handed Steph the letter.

"She used Google Translate." I told her.

"Mhm. Smart woman... Oh by the way, Python is totally gonna try and eat us." She open the letter and climbed up to her bunk and sat cross-legged "She says that she misses us, she used Google Translate... She packed our comfiters, some clothes, she says that Chiron also sent a letter telling her what we need for camp. She says theres a sleeping bag and bug spray."

"Sleeping bag and bug spray..." I repeated.

"She also packed some stuff from our room."

"What kind of stuff?" I asked.

"Doesn't say." She peered over the surround at the box so you could only see her eyes. "You gonna open it?'

"No. I'm gonna let it sit here closed so you wonder about whats in here till you loose sleep over it and die a lonely life at the young age of 25."

She stared at me with wide eyes. I smiled and cut the tape with the tip of one of my arrows. She climbed off the bunk and helped me pull the stuff out. We sorted through our stuff and started putting it away when we reached the bottom.

"She means stuff from home." I said pulling out a stuffed dog. Steph grabbed from my hand the next instant.

"Be cafeful. Hes old." She said holding it against her chest. It was dark brown and looked like it went throw the dryer one to many times.

"I thought dog was dead."

"Sir Fluffington is not dead."

"Okay, his name in NOT Sir Fluffington. Even I know that."

"I was checking to see if you were paying attention. And its really Washington."

"Oh yeah... your Historical Figures phase..."

"Hey." She stared at me. "Mom still has all the pictures from you little Batman phase."

"Batman is awesome..."

"So is Washington..."

"Oh look. Mom gave me..."

"Your Batman action figure."

"I thought I lost this!" I started moving his arms and legs. "Did she pack the Batmobile?"

"You threw your Batmobile into the pool and destroyed it."

"Oh yeah... Mom told me it was from Dad and I found out it wasn't..."

Just then the cabin door flew open and the rest of our cabin came in. Steph threw Washington and my Batman into the trunk and slammed it shut and sat on top of it.

"Care package!" Lee sang in a high pitched voice walking in.

"How was the game?" Steph asked.

"Hermes cabin beat the Ares cabin. With our help of course."

"You guys coming? Chiron didn't kick you guys out of the bonfire too did he?" Will asked.

"The worst that could happen would be an Ares kid throwing one of us into the fire." I said.

"I heard Chiron brought us Thin Mints today."

"Where did he get Thin Mints?" Steph asked pulling on her camp sweatshirt from one of her steps.

"Hes Chiron. He has his resources..."

"That, and there's a Girl Scout troop about a half hour away from here..." Lee said.

"That and the fire is starting"

We ran out of the cabin and sprinted to the bonfire, not wanting to miss any Thin Mints and trying to push the thought of being eaten by a massive Serpent out of my head.


	17. Central Park, Kindergarten and Daphne

Walking back into the Apollo cabin after the bonfire made me realize something. It looked like almost like a kindergarten classroom. Paint everywhere, people singing and instruments all over the place. It probably could have been one, besides the fact that all of us are teenagers and a few of the healers would purposely make other kids hurt themselves just so they could heal them. It was a good thing all these walls were soundproof, or the other cabins would hate the yelling and singing going on at all hours of the day. I lay on my bed just as the lights went out and everyone started yelling at each other for blowing a fuse.

I couldn't sleep that night. Not at all. I opened my eyes and sighed and went to roll over, but there was a light. I looked up at the ceiling were it seemed like the night sky was directly above me. I never noticed it before because I had my eyes pressed shut before the lights went out. It was the dark. I don't like the dark. Not likening is an understatement. I hate it. No, I fear it. The night sky, not scary. Literal darkness? Scary. I took one last look at the ceiling and rolled back over and jammed my face into my pillow. I had to sleep.

The next morning was cloudy. The bad weather made me feel more tired than I already was. Steph didn't talk at all, just acknowledged people by looking at them and giving a small smile when they came to say good luck and stuff like that. Sitting closely next to me, she was tapping her fingers on the table and zoned out on her plate and pushed her eggs around with her fork.

"You have to eat." I said quietly.

"I know." She replied, just a little louder than a mumble and began stabbing at her eggs.

"All right, who's ready to go on a deadly field trip?" Connor said as he and Travis came walking over.

"Very inspirational." Travis said. He looked at Steph. "Aw, come on Princess, you can't back out now!" She looked at him and smiled a little.

"That's more like it!" Connor said. Clapping a hand on her back, he lowered his voice. "By the way, everyone bet all their drachmas that you three would come back a live because the Ares cabin is convinced you'll mess it up and the World will explode. They're a fun bunch of people."

"They didn't say anything about the world exploding..." Travis said as he and Connor began to walk away. Just as soon as they were gone Chiron came over.

"Time to go." He said. Evan was behind him. I sighed and Steph got up, grabbing a bunch of green grapes and trudged alongside me.

Two hours away from camp and we already had a problem.

"What do you mean you can't fix the taxi?" I asked the taxi driver.

"Well... I... Uh..." The driver stammered.

"Where did Evan go? He could fix this." I said.

"Right here." Evan's voice was muffled.

"Hey, kid! Get out from under my car!" The taxi driver said.

"You'll shut your mouth if you want this thing fixed."

"You'll get out if you want a ride."

"You'll need it fixed if you're gonna give us a ride." He crawled out from under the car and wiped his hand on his shirt. "Start the car."

The driver did as told; the car started like it was brand new. The driver gave Evan a look and climbed in the car and we got in the back. The rest of the ride was quiet. All you could hear was the sound of the backpacks, filled with all our supplies, rubbing against the seat.

We showed up in front of the Empire State Building at about 9 in the morning. I wasn't sure about where we were going from here.

"Why can't Zeus just get up and find his own kids..." I mumbled.

Thunder boomed above us in response.

"Whatever."

A police man came up to us. "You kids lost?" He asked.

"No." I answered.

"Looking for Mom or Dad?"

Steph snorted behind me. She stepped forward to the policeman. "Can you point us in the direction of Central Park?"

"Uh, yeah. Just go that way down 5th Avenue."

"Okay, thanks." She flashed the policeman a big smile and turned and started off down the sidewalk.

"She's weirdly happy for this." Evan said.

"She's internally panicking and this is the only way she know how to deal with this. You know fake happiness."

"Parks are wonderful!" She called over her shoulder. Multiple people stared and she didn't even care.

Central Park had a few small bodies of water. The tree we were looking for, the one that had Daphne, was supposed to be beside any one of them.

"Which one are we looking for?" Evan asked.

"Turtle Pond. Here's a picture of the tree." Steph pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Evan. "It's supposed to be in like, the middle of the park."

"Let's go, then." I said.

We passed multiple groups of people giving us weird looks. I don't blame them. A random group of three kids in bright orange shirts caring around huge backpacks and staring at trees. We reached Turtle Pond, and I'm fairly sure there weren't any turtles. I couldn't be fully sure because I was too busy looking at trees.

"Hey guys, guess what I found!" Evan called

I turned around and saw Evan standing next to a tree that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I was about a quarter of the size of a normal tree, and hidden behind a lamppost.

"So," Steph said, "what are we supposed to do?"

We stared at the tree for a bit, wondering how exactly we were supposed to free Daphne from the tree.

"You're some funny looking people." The tree seemed to have a face made out of the bark, "Maybe you should just utter the words, 'Daphne, under the power of your father Peneus, I' and then say your name 'set you free from the Laurel Tree of Central Park!' And hurry up, because boy, do I need to stretch."

I stared at the tree and after a while the face looked agitated.

"Well, hurry up! You're gonna need my help on this quest!" Daphne said.

"Daphne," Steph began, "under the power of your father Peneus, I Stephanie Archer set you free from the Laurel tree of Central Park."

The tree smiled. "Oh thank you so much! I'm forever grateful and- oh! Here we go!" There was a quick flash of light that made me see spots for a few seconds. When my vision cleared a tiny girl was brushing dirt from a white toga. She looked up and smiled at all of us. Her eyes were the same color as the leaves of the laurel wreath she wore on her head and her brown hair was braided down her back. "Hi! I'm Daphne! So where are we going on this quest? Oh! I'm the one who knows this!" She laughed at herself. "Come this way! But first, who gave you those?" She asked Steph and I pointing to the iPods at our waist.

"Well, mom and dad-"

She abruptly ripped them from our waists and stared at them.

"You mean Hera. She gave these to you. Demi-gods should never have electronic devices like this, they attract monsters."

"Why would she do that?" Steph asked.

"She hates you."

"Why?"

"Because you're Apollo's kids, and Apollo isnt her kid. Of all the affairs Zeus had and all the kids he had she was always incredibly jealous of Leto for having kids as amazing as Artemis and Apollo. Especially when about 90% of Apollo's kids become famous." She started walking away. "Come on, we have to fix these."


End file.
